The fee was only a quadran. In the apodyterium Julia paid the attendant an as to help her disrobe and another two asses to look after her belongings. As the attendant watched, it was not in the slightest bit shameful for her to undress. First she undid all the pins in her hair and in her robes. They were many and had to be done carefully, one at a time. Then all the collars, bracelets, anklets, and trinkets were removed with a similar care. Next was the stola wrapping around her. Then off came the strophium girdling her torso revealing a pearly-skinned belly and two nascent mounds of flesh jutting from the chest. Julia paused a moment. She was used to dressing so superfluously in layers, being all-bare but for the garment around her hips gave her the feeling of a sort of emptiness about her. Her bare skin so accustomed under the protection of clothes conflicted with the strangeness of the air. At last when her body finished equilibrating, she removed her last, remaining bastion of modesty, the subligaculum around her hips concluding the ritual. With the amount she had to remove and the care with which she did so this whole process of undressing took half an hour.
She advanced into the adjacent room. She could feel sweat induced by the heat of the hypocaust and within minutes her whole body was saturated with moisture. Inside she was not alone for the therma attracted the variety of Rome's. In this time of day the palestra flanking the bathrooms are filled with people engaging in all sorts of sport. A woman lay on her back with her friend either shining or fondling her body with olive oil. And there was another woman sitting across her couch had with a face of an ambiguous contortion, in the activity so described. She was reclined on her back, supporting herself with her arms. Her slave, who was fully clothed, on her knees and her face buried between her matron's legs, which were spread forming an angle.
As Julia headed into the to take a dip into the pool, she caught a reflection of herself in the calm water, which captured the image faithfully. She could see herself uncensured, unmarred by human vestments. Immaculate, pearly-yellow skin formed the whole of her natural design except for two concentrate regions of hairs, one on top of her head luscious and golden, the other formulate in the region between her legs. It was an absolutely singular spectacle. She was not more pious than the next person but she took a few seconds in gracious prayer, "The gods truly have done a wonder". In all her nakedness, stripped of the various jewels and pins ornamenting her vestments, the layers augmenting her figure, the diadem normally crowning her head, and the brilliance of the colors tinting her cloths, she might be completely unrecognized by anyone that knew her. And except by the extraordinary beauty that remarked her in this state, she was not distinguishable from a slave.
In the bathroom was a diverse makeup. Most of them were young like Julia and so innocuous to behold in their natural states. A few of them were shapeless beings offensive to the common eye. Some were disproportionately composed. Those who had wide hips, and those with small hips. Those with misshapen, pendulous breasts, those who had no breasts at all. Some were old and shriveled. There were children younger than Julia, hairless and sexless in appearance. Such formed the composure of the regulars going casually about their businesses in the public space that Julia was about to garnish with her presence.
The temperate waters of the tepidarium welcomed the first dip of the newly nude. Julia found it so soothing, all her muscles let loose at once. The artificial climate inside complemented the tepid water. She took her time floating around in the pool never wanting to emerge.
Source
1. Carcopino, Jérôme, Henry T. Rowell, and E.O. Lorimer. Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire. London: G. Routledge & sons, ltd, 1941. Print
